Over the years we’ve had the good fortunate of speaking with thousands of successful entrepreneurs, artists and creatives. Some are happy, some are not. The happy ones almost always had a strong sense of purpose and so we are very focused on trying to help our community members and audience find their purpose. This series is our attempt to create more dialogue around finding your purpose.
Brandon Matthews
It is my personal motto to “live life on purpose.” I want to leave the people and the places that I go better than I found them. I want to live a legacy life, meaning I leave good things behind when I’m gone. With that perspective, I feel successful helping others find success. This passion brings purpose to each and every day that I live, because there is always someone that can be impacted. Read more>>
Taylor Langston
I am Tay Melodies, from Philadelphia and New Jersey but Im based in Los Angeles. I started my DJ journey in 2022 and ever since I felt like I have found my purpose. The simple hobby I picked up on a whim because I knew I always wanted to learn has completely changed my life. It has bought me so much happiness, joy, and community. For someone who was a self described loner, the community and connections Ive made during this journey are everything to me. It started with “Your Favorite Late Night Mix”, where I did my first set in front of people. Everyone was so supportive and encouraging. The space they cultivated is so warm and welcoming and makes you feel free to be yourself. My first live hour set was at Moonflower Mondays at the Falls. Read more>>
Tracee Seals
It all started when I saw how a small act of kindness could ripple into something much bigger. I remember volunteering at a local shelter and watching families light up with hope. It was then I realized that connecting people to resources and opportunities could change lives, and I knew I wanted to be part of that magic every day. Read more>>
Kathy Bonesho
After many years working in a traditional medical setting, where most interventions were one-size-fits-all, I began to see the limitations of conventional approaches. When our own son struggled with eating, sleeping, and sensory processing, we were at a loss. A cousin introduced us to craniosacral therapy, a concept we knew little about, yet we were willing to try anything to help our son. The results were nothing short of life-changing, transforming not only his health but our entire family dynamic. I immediately knew I wanted to understand this approach fully, leading me to begin my training in Craniosacral Therapy through the Upledger Institute in 2003. Read more>>
Lucas Sa Lotufo Cury
My passion for sports began as a kid growing up in a small Brazilian town. Like most Brazilians, I was practically born with a soccer ball at my feet, dreaming of going pro. I loved the thrill of competition and the lessons sports taught me about pushing my limits.
About a year before moving to the U.S., I started planning my future, dreaming of building a soccer academy if the pro route didn’t work out. But life took a different turn. After graduating, I found myself feeling disillusioned with soccer and began to focus on my backup plan. Then I discovered beach tennis, and it completely stole my heart. Soon, I was spending all my time on the court, and soccer faded into the background. Read more>>
Natalie Pace
Early in my career, I made a commitment to add a splash of green to Wall Street and transform lives on Main Street. 25 years later, I’m living the life of my dreams, immersed in these dual mandates, which go hand-in-hand. Read more>>
Ailin Deng
My purpose is to create and share my own art. After working in a high-intensity game company for a long time, I went through a period of depression that made me realize I wanted more than to work behind the scenes in the music industry—I wanted to step forward as an artist. I saved up for tuition and enrolled in Berklee NYC’s master’s program in Songwriting & Production, which has brought me closer to my dream with every step. My journey is about pursuing a vision that feels true to me and using my music to connect with others. Read more>>
Tsuyoshi Kobayashi
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure why I decided to pursue this career. However, one thing I can say for certain is that doing what I love has always been crucial for me. It hasn’t been as easy as I imagined, though. Choosing a career in art, for example, didn’t come with the same stability that other professions might offer, and it faced resistance from my parents. Still, making my passion my profession has been incredibly important to me. Because it’s something I truly love, I’ve always had a natural sense of curiosity and drive, things I engage in without even thinking about it. Read more>>
Akshay Ravi
I always think about our purpose as the intersection of combining what we are good at with what makes us happy. In my case, I find purpose in telling stories and building / uplifting community, and I think that purpose permeates everything that I do in life on a professional level. Ever since I was young, I’ve always loved storytelling – whether it was making up fantastical worlds in the empty lot across the street, or acting like my side yard was a world famous baseball stadium, imagination and the narratives that I could create in my head have always brought me joy; and, as I got older and channeled that joy into creating art with like-minded individuals, and uplifting each other in the process, I learned to bring those together as the media maker that I am today. Read more>>
Ashtin Pinoa
When people talk about purpose, I think it is often misconstrued – generally, people think that you were put on earth for a purpose and you have to really think introspectively about what that purpose is. And that purpose must be something big and grand – world changing even. But I don’t think that is the case. Purpose is not determined once and you move on with it. I have found that my purpose and life shifts with each season. Before I had children, my purpose was very different. Now, my purpose is being a mother. Read more>>
Brooke Rankin
Purpose, a unique human concept that we all deeply desire. I’ll sum up by saying, purpose is an ever-evolving definition that changes in life as you do. We never truly need to know our “purpose”. We simply need to follow the things that light up our soul and make our heart feel full and at peace. Read more>>
Kyle Miller
It’s a very challenging question to answer, because I think that can change over the years. I believe there are two types of purposes: long-term and short-term (and you could call those goals :)). My long-term purpose is to first and foremost share the Gospel with other people. Throughout my life I’ve come to learn how that is implemented in either subtle or overt ways. The short-term purpose (or goal) I have now is to continue to pursue art as both a passion and as a career. It is wonderful getting to know people and understanding how to interact with others. I grew up shy, so I wasn’t very good with being communicative. I am also learning not to be a pushover. It’s tough, but it feels empowering and relieving putting my foot down – knowing that I actually have control over my own life, and not everything is my business. Read more>>
Melissa Frederick
I was born with a congenital heart condition that has required me to have 3 open heart surgeries, and I experienced a 100lb pharmaceutical weight gain as a young teen. Mid high school I was miserable in my body and experiencing heart complications and decided to get off the pharmaceuticals to lose weight. I worked with a famous hypnotherapist who is now deceased and along the journey to health I also was introduced to Donna Eden Energy Medicine. I participated in a 5-day retreat with her and others at Omega Institute and continued into her certification program where I completed the first year of training. I was in college at this time, I’d offer energy work to friends when interested and continued with my own practice. Eventually I got my health coaching certification from IIN and moved forward in the health coaching world. Read more>>
Randall Ulyate
I took a long journey to find where I wanted to be in life, and the irony of it is that it is a return to my childhood self. I have been able to tap into my purpose in life, my passions that drive me, by revisiting the things that brought me joy in childhood–storytelling, movement, and play. Through my work as a mythologist, I am able to engage in storytelling, creative expression, and playful fun. I spent a lot of time worrying about who I was supposed to be, and it wasn’t until I let go of the weight of others’ expectations that I was able to really flourish in my creativity. I’ve worked many jobs that paid the bills but stifled my creative passion, and it is only through a reconciliation with my childhood self that I have been able to carve a niche for myself, where I feel both spiritually fulfilled and intellectually stimulated. Read more>>
Don And Bev Fries/bow
We wanted to give back to our community in a way that truly makes a difference. What we know about a whole food plant-based lifestyle is that it works for the good in multiple ways – improving human health, improving the health of our planet, and ending animal suffering. Educating and supporting people in adopting this lifestyle became our mission. Read more>>
Ginny Delaitre
Finding my purpose has been a testament to perseverance. I’ve always believed that purpose is revealed through action—trying new things, learning from outcomes, and evolving. Early in my career, I was driven by curiosity, testing different facets of development, design, marketing, and communication. I had many titles and performed a great variety of jobs. Some efforts succeeded; others fell flat. But each experience taught me something valuable and gradually clarified what energized me most: creating genuine, human-centered connections that make a difference. Read more>>
Sophia Flowers
To find my purpose, it took a great deal of self-examination and consideration of who I actually am and understanding my individual desires. And when I say individual, I don’t mean separate from everyone/everything. I just mean as purely me, the unique person I am, within everything else, with the unique part I have been invited to play amongst it all. Read more>>
Becky Perkins
My life’s purpose has become quite clear to me over the years: I am here to help ease the suffering of my fellow humans, particularly those who have suffered sexual violence. I’ve always felt a deep sense of empathy and compassion for others, even before I was old enough to articulate what that means. I am somewhat shy and introverted, so I was never one to speak out against injustice as so many inspiring advocates and activists have. Instead, I was drawn to sit with the grief-stricken, or with the lonely person in the back of the room who feels that no one cares about them or understands what they’ve been through. But the single most influential catalyst for realizing my life’s purpose was the rape I suffered at age twelve, a deeply painful experience that challenged my sense of self and the world around me. Read more>>
Lafonda Blackmon
Finding my purpose was a journey shaped by my experiences, challenges, and the people around me. For a long time, I was searching for something that would make me feel fulfilled—a calling that would allow me to make a meaningful difference in others’ lives. I realized that every setback, every success, and every encounter was guiding me towards understanding my purpose. Read more>>
Cameron Macdougall
My Purpose (a continual work in progress): I free people from the chains of their circumstances, empowering them to live lives that are truly fulfilling and awe-inspiring. I discovered this purpose by first recognizing that I was living on repeat. From high school dropout to criminal, chef, and financial executive, I cycled through the same patterns again and again. No matter how much I changed my surroundings, I recreated the same circumstances, locked in a relentless loop of triggers, actions, and results—a loop that always led me right back to square one. Read more>>
Christina Harmon
I never felt like I had a purpose until it basically slapped me in the face. Growing up, I never really felt like I had a strong calling to do anything in particular. I knew I was good at learning, and had a strong analytical mind, so it made sense to go into engineering, but I always had a feeling that something was off, and I didn’t fit in there. Read more>>
Adam Bucholz
Ever since I was a child I wanted to be an artist. Since then, I also have been through an endless journey to figure out what that means. Art is obscure, it bends rules, it rewrites and repaints a picture of who I am and what I am supposed to be doing, including my own rules.
I don’t think I had a choice in the matter and I think that is the journey I am still on; being an artist. Creativity is vast and boundless and it is chaos. As an artist we have the ability to bring the ether into physicality and that can feel overwhelming, or perfect, or powerful or aimless. But, despite it all… we create. and we call it art. We can take the chaos and bring it into order, we bring it into the physical. We make it exist. Read more>>
Emily Chavez
Finding my purpose didn’t happen overnight it was living and doing the next thing and along the way realizing what brings me joy and where I am passionate. I grew up with a deep faith in God, thanks to my parents. They had a strong and healthy marriage of 46 years, until my mom passed away in 2020. Even as a child I knew that part of my purpose was to be a mother and wife and raise a family. I also knew that I was called to something even beyond that. Read more>>
Casey (sassy Grilled Cheese)
Growing up I always loved making people laugh and creating. One of the things I always liked to do was make videos with my sister. We loved creating comedy skits and these videos were largely never archived or posted anywhere online, but I think that is definitely the origin of my passion for comedy and making content for YouTube. Read more>>
Melissa Martini-morales
I feel like my purpose, if I had to capture it in one word, is “curating.” It’s the act of gathering and organizing things into a cohesive whole. I discovered my love for curating back in high school, when I joined the literary magazine, picking out and ordering pieces, seeing how they could complement each other on a page. Later, while studying creative writing at Seton Hall, I focused my degree on fiction, especially short stories. I had always envisioned writing novels, but I fell for the unique power of short stories and collections, where every piece contributes to a greater theme or feel. Read more>>
Steven Massey
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw firsthand how isolating it was for people to be disconnected from one another. It became clear to us that in-person connections—especially in a social, active environment—were crucial for mental and emotional well-being. With everything being shut down, we realized there was a unique opportunity to bring people together in a way that felt fresh and invigorating. Read more>>
Michael Clay
How I found my purpose was, I always had a thing for sports and played sports growing up. I always have been that person that loves the outside. I hated to be inside. Sports was my way of getting my mind off the real world and to forget about everything I had going on. Read more>>
Gina Walton
Rather than finding my purpose, I feel as if my purpose found me. It happened about 12 years ago when I attended one of my psychic development classes. We had a very engaging guest speaker that night who was a numerologist. She gave us a wonderful introduction to the language of numbers. I couldn’t take notes quickly enough…I was mesmerized by what she was saying. I began to study with her and read many books about numerology. Over the years that followed, the ancient art of numerology took hold of me and numbers and their interpretations became my second language. Read more>>
Tyler Woodall
I had went through pursuing “success” that the world typically defines, money and freedom. One day I was sitting in a jeep on a Safari, and I was reflecting on how I wasn’t as happy as I thought I would be. I had build a business that could run without me, I had freedom, and I was making lots of money, but I was not happy. I spent time reflecting on the most joyful moments of my life, and they had been moments of service (mission trips). I also decided that life wasn’t meant to be spent alone, so I needed to make some changes on my personal life. Read more>>
Kristen Reimer
For as long as I can remember, I’ve searched for a sense of purpose, facing struggles with weight, self-doubt, and the rollercoaster of balancing family, work, and self-care. My journey with my weight and self-image has been a constant thread throughout my life, teaching me resilience and empathy. Life took me through a range of roles—pharmaceutical sales, teaching high school science, and even automating a family business. But despite my accomplishments, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing. Read more>>
Rhee Nesson
From a young age, I’ve always connected well with people older than myself. My parents always joked that when we would go out with friends and family, I always ended up at the “grown-up table”. That desire to connect with others is something that I always cherished, so during high school, I volunteered my time at a local nursing home. I spent many hours listening to the residents and getting to know their stories. Even then I realized the importance of hearing and being heard. Everyone has a story to tell… and it’s important for people to hear it, too. Listening to others is what connects us all. Read more>>
Katelyn Darkangelo
Finding my purpose for helping new and expecting moms confidently navigate their workouts throughout pregnancy and postpartum stemmed from leaning into my strengths, curiosities and interests, while simultaneously always being open to opportunity. Read more>>
Jack Dunker
Writing songs is my passion, and making music is what drives me. I found my purpose in a guitar. I have played for almost all my life, but it was only three years ago that songwriting called me. As I began writing after years of being around music, my world lit up. To make something new and original is the greatest privilege in this life. I love creating something that influences people. My goal in this life is to write music that will not only be heard by the world but music that will influence the world. This is my purpose and I am so glad I found it. Read more>>
Rebecca Justice
I found my purpose through tragedy and misfortune and chose to overcome misfortune and triumph over the tragedy after our family home was burnt to the ground in 2007… We lost everything our wedding pictures our kids being born on tape all their baby pictures, my husband‘s memorabilia, etc. Designing my family home and all the furniture inside gave me purpose! I need ti show my kids that we can triumph over tragedy and not to ask why me?? Design brought me out of my depression and gave me the fire to help others heal through Design and Fashion. It gave me passion with the purpose And the jewelry line was born. Read more>>
Michelle Ramin
It’s been a long, meandering path – full of incredible successes and failures, wins and losses, beauty and challenges. When I was a kid, I grew up lower middle-class in a small duplex in a rural Appalachian town. 6 people sharing 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. I even shared a twin bed with my little sister and a bedroom with all 3 of my siblings until I was 11 years old. I spent a lot of time running between my neighborhood friends’ houses – next door, across the street, down the alley. In some ways, it was a really lovely way to grow up – raised by the community of my neighborhood. I also spent a lot of time at my grandparents’ and cousins’ houses. Read more>>
